Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Things wear out. Break down. Sometimes it's sudden, sometimes not. I think I forgot to mention that New Mulva, our vintage Volvo, had a blowout on my way home from the tall ship cruise in Maine. This was my first-ever blowout, and it was scary!

My cell phone was dead (if you know me, you know that this is common. And that if it's not dead, I might have left it at home. Or in a bag that I don't have with me. Or it's just been muted for several days, so I have no idea that people have been calling me). So I did it old school, jumping up and down and gesturing wildly by the side of the road until a Maine state trooper pulled over and called Triple A for me.

When the trooper asked me what happened, I actually said, "I just had a flat tire the likes of which I have never seen before!"

With the new tires on, it was hard to ignore the plastic piece dragging on the ground under New Mulva's front bumper. Chris told me it's called an "air dam." We ordered a new one. Check it out: old one right, new one left. Repairing the infrastructure!

We also know why New Mulva's air conditioning doesn't work: It's just a big clump of rust. Nice to have that cleared up.

So, aside from the car events, what have I been doing during all these postless weeks? Working. Like. Crazy. At my jobjob. To the point that I now wear two wrist braces to fight RSI. I don't want the equivalent of a blowout or even dragging plastic pieces.

I did 40 hours in four days from Sunday to Wednesday last week, then took off for Maine for a long weekend of nothing... photos of that next post. For now, if you want to see some Moby-Dick project preview shots, check out Matt's blog, which you should be reading anyway!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

It's a top-down round-yoke cardigan knit in one piece using fingering-weight yarn; sizes are 32-52 inch bust; the sample is 36 inches around. The colorwork is a slipped stitch pattern, so only one color is used per row. This is one of those designs that just made sense--I've been wanting to use a plaid pattern for some time, and mixing it with some floral elements (my first time using floral elements). Just click the link above to order!

The working title was "Garden Punk." I knew it was right for the Sanguine Gryphon. I mean, they styled it with a top hat.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

I had the good fortune to be offered the position of knitting instructor/onboard consultant for two knitting cruises on the Isaac H. Evans, a tall ship that sails out of Rockland, Maine. There were advanced knitters, there were intermediate knitters, there were two people who learned to knit. But there was more. I swam in the cold ocean (how can you resist an offer to jump RIGHT OFF A BOAT?)

I ate three lobsters at a lobster bake on the beach of a small island.

I even got to climb to the top of the mast and look out over the ocean. There were seals frolicking around the ship.

Oh yeah, and I did some knitting of my own. Remember this? I'm reknitting it using Neighborhood Fiber Co.'s Studio Sock and actually writing up the pattern. It should be available by August.

There's more about the trip on my flickr page. Have some time this September? There's another knitting cruise with bunks still available starting on Sept. 6. Seriously, it could not have been more awesome.